Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Cris Kohl and Joan Forsberg The Wreck of the Griffon - The Greatest Mystery of the Great Lakes - an in print wiki for wreck wonks, historians, divers and mystery lovers Book Review  By Stephen Weir - published in July issue of Diver Magazine Just prior to the publishing of their new book about the 17th century barque Griffon, authors Cris Kohl and Joan Forsberg, asked famed writer and wreck hunter Clive Cussler what he knew about the missing Great Lakes’ ship.  “The Griffon -- isn’t that the shipwreck that somebody’s been finding every ten minutes?” he asked the pair. Cussler  nailed it in 11-words. It took Kohl and Forsberg a little longer.    The Wreck of the Griffon: The Greatest Mystery of the Great Lakes , is a 224 page printed Wiki (complete with over 200 colour and black and white images) about the ship, the men who built her, the crew who lost her and the legion of divers who say they have found her! Cris Kohl, a former wreck columnis...

Dive Press Release Monday at stephen.weir.com. Stories based on press releases received by Stephen Weir - as featured on Facebook and Linked In Last year an Ontario mining corporation told the investment community that it was going to buy an Hawaiian based 54ft luxury yacht and a couple of submarines. On Friday the travel trade learned that the Avery Claire has begun providing the Hawaiian Islands with a one-of-a-kind cruise experience - above and below the water! In May 2014 Toronto's Zara Resources Inc announced that it had acquired recreational marine assets comprising two recreational submarines, a 10 year lease on a luxury yacht named Avery Claire, and the website www.LuxAquatica.com offering luxury yacht and diving services for the sum of just $500,000. In a press release, Zara describes their acquisition this way: "The Avery Claire is a luxury yacht based in Honolulu, Hawaii with three air conditioned staterooms, a multipurpose sunroof deck capable of landing helicop...

Dr Sharpe in Toronto DR SHARPE HEADED SOUTH TO NORTH TORONTO  TALKS WHALE BUBBLE NETTING! ... Diver Magazine Canadian educated American whale expert Dr Fred Sharpe (pictured below) was in Toronto last week to promote the new Imax film Humpback Whales. The Alaska based whale expert is featured in the new movie because of his leading-edge theories about the social feeding behaviours of this large cetaceans. Narrated by two-time Golden G lobe nominee Ewan McGregor, Humpback Whales is a immersive ocean adventure that invites audiences to dive into the underwater world of these 17-metre, 45 ton mammals. Humpback Whales has been made by Freeman Films who have done many other underwater documentaries including The Living Sea, Dolphins, Coral Reef Adventure and To the Arctic. While many of the science large format documentaries bemoan the demise of the animals they are featuring, Humpback Whales, in comparision is a good news story. Once feared as monsters, and very nearl...

RAESHA SIROIS  -- 2015’s FACE OF THE FESTIVAL The Face of the Festival Does one have to be born in the West Indies to have Carnival Fever? It certainly cannot hurt! Raesha Sirois, born in St. James, Trinidad, immigrated to Canada in 1970 and grew up in Scarborough, Ontario. Although she enjoyed a Canadian environment and learned to embrace winter out on the slopes with her snowboard, Trinidadian culture was a great part of her upbringing. This included eating her mother’s Creole cooking, listening to Soca, pan and chutney music, and regular month-long trips down to Trinidad to visit relatives in the summer. Raesha played clarinet in the Toronto parang group, La Petite Musicale in the late 80s and joined Silhouettes Steel orchestra to play steel pan in 1994.  She is the only known 9-bass player in Canada to own her own set of pans and currently plays with Pan Fantasy Steel band, led by 2015 Harry Jerome award winner, Wendy Jones. A full-time dental hygieni...

Calvin Taylor - by Stephen Weir New Man At The Head Of Parade Calvin Taylor joins Festival Management Committee (FMC) as the Parade Operations Manager for the Scotia Toronto Caribbean Carnival 2015 season.  He is a Canadian Citizen, born in the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago.   Calvin attended Sheridan College where he completed a course in Electronics Engineering Technician.  With these credentials and his self motivated drive for success he pursued a very lucrative career in Information Technology Sales, Earning numerous top sales awards along the way. As a former North American Federation of Musicians booking agent, he booked many Caribbean acts into Toronto for the Caribbean season over the years. Calvin is no stranger to planning big events.  In 1986 he and a group of investors held a major event at the Varsity Arena called MULTY MUSIC 86.  It featured very popular bands like FireFlight, Messenger, Pryme Tyme, Dominica Swinging Stars and ...

ONE QUESTION ON BEHALF OF CANADIANS WHO JUST LIKE TO WRECK DIVE At the ROM  - live broadcast from the deck of the wreck of the Erebus I  got just one question in this afternoon at a packed media event, organized to watch in real time footage being shot on the wreck of the HMS Erebus under the ice in Canada's high arctic. When can sport divers like me dive on this recently discovered 19th century 4-masted schooner? When the divers turned off their cameras underwater, Marc-André Bernier, underwater archaeologist and Head of the Underwater Archaeology Team at Parks Canada, held a Question and Answer session with Toronto reporters whi le standing in a tent, on the ice, near the dive hole over the wreck of the Erebus. " The 9 ft of ice not withstanding, today's dive on the Erebus looked pretty easy - good viz, sport diver depth and current free." I asked Bernier, " will sport divers be allowed to dive on the Erebus?" The answer? "We hope so...

The Benwood - NOAA photograph Happy Birthday to the wreck of the Benwood It was 73-years ago Thursday that the Merchant Marine freighter Benwood collided with another freighter, the Robert C. Tuttle and sank off the shores of Key Largo, Florida.  Stephen Weir photographing the wreck of the Benwood It was an accident caused in no small part by World War 2 -- rumours of German U-boats in the area that night required both ships to travel completely blacked out, even though they were just 3-miles off-shore in the reef filled waters of Key Largo’s Atlantic coast.  The 360 ft. long Benwood was filled to the gunnels with phosphate rock and was armed with a deck gun, depth charges and bombs. When her bow was crushed in the collision, she took on water and 30-minutes laters the captain and crew abandoned ship as the Benwood sank. She now lies close to shore between French Reef and Dixie Shoals on a bottom of low profile reef and sand in depths ranging from 25 ...

Fancy Franks Has A Media Preview For Its Gourmet Hot Dogs and Pulled Port Poutine ... adapted from a popular Weir Facebook posting Open Kitchen at Fancy Franks on Queen Street in Toronto - photo Weir It was the end of the Month - March 2015 - that I attended a Media Launch for a Hot Dog! PR company had been hired to hold a closed down press party for Fancy Franks Gourmet Hot Dogs on Queen St West near Spadina here in Toronto. I almost didn't make it past a phalanx of iPad carrying publicists  who blocked the front door to the tasting, thankfully I brought my invite (I probably didn't meet their age demographics - two bloggers came on skateboards). Blogger stands by the Media Preview sampling station I think of the place as Memories of Nathan's on 7th Ave in New York City (but way way cleaner) - All beef wieners in hand-twisted lamb casings BBQ'd on a grill built specifically for hot dogs and sausages. Varied and interes ting take on the urban dog - ...

Stylish After-Dive Soft Landing By Stephen Weir, March issue of Diver Magazine Kate, Conch and Cayman Pillow - photo by Weir For Toronto-based London-trained Interior Designer, Kate Thornly-Hall, Grand Cayman Island evokes a certain Seven Mile Beach chic.   Her new line of pillows, towels, hand-woven carpets, and wallpaper are inspired by Cayman life, below and above the water. Diver Magazine doesn’t want to typecast her as the Cayman Pillow Lady, but, just saying, that, when viewing her collection your eyes are drawn to her green and white trellis design throw pillows, her indoor outdoor pillows covered in 19 th century four-masted Cayman schooners and Royal Palm fronds.     Late last year, in a private downtown Toronto club she unveiled her Cayman Island Collection to Diver Magazine.   “ The Cayman Islands Tourism Office in Toronto called and ask if I had ever been to the Caymans. I had not.” Said Kate Thornly-Hall, in explaining how her n...

ANCIENT SHIPBUILDING DESIGN - THE WRECK OF THE LAST DHOW EXHIBITION - AGA KHAN MUSEUM - TORONTO Model of Dhow  - Aga Khan Museum - photo by George Socka The Dhow is a traditional one or two masted sailing vessel usually with lateen rigging (slanting, triangular sails) that has been used for two millennia in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. It was constructed of wood.   Boat builders steam-shaped wooden hull planks, roughly 2.5 centimeters thick and between 20 and 50 centimeters wide.   These planks were stitched edge to edge with rope. According to the Aga Khan Museum “wadding was placed under the stitching both inside and outside the hull. A lime-like sealing compound applied to the exterior waterproofed the hull.”

DR ALAN CHONG TALKS ABOUT THE LAST DHOW RECOVERY - THE VIDEO Video talks to Dr Chong about the shipwreck of the 1,200-year-old dhow by Stephen Weir and George Socka for Diver Magazine DIVER MAGAZINE talked to Dr Alan Chong, the head of the Asian Civilizations Museum in Singapore about underwater archaeology and shipwrecks in the Java Sea.   Alan Chong is a former Toronto Art Gallery curator.   That interview can be seen in a short YouTube video at : http://youtu.be/jfI5pnTn-1U

The Lost Dhow Only showing in North America.  Dhow’d that happen? By Stephen Weir - article in March issue of Diver Magazine Canada’s newest gallery, the Aga Khan Museum , has just opened a major exhibition about one of the world’s oldest and most controversial underwater archaeological finds   – the 1,200 year-old Belitung Shipwreck.   The exhibition about the ship, The Lost Dhow; A discovery from the Maritime Silk Route , had its North American launch in Toronto in early December instead of a planned debut at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC. Pottery lie on the deck of the wreck of the Dhow. photo - Tilman W alterfang In 1998, the shallow waters off Belitung Island in the western Java Seas yielded what has proven to be the earliest marine archaeological discovery of the century – a wooden ship filled with gold, silver and bronze objects and a staggering 57,500 Chinese ceramic artifacts. The 15-metre long wooden trading vessel has...